England seems to be flying high in confidence. They have a great group of Test quality pace bowlers now to choose from for all formats which makes all the difference. The test bowlers really know how to get people out and that's what the English bowling group have done in this series (all of them sharing wickets amongst themselves)and never allowed Australia to gather any sort of momentum.

The English Batting performance was a surprise for me. Their batting order doesn't look intimidating at all and yet they were able to easily put on good totals and beat the Aussies in two consecutive games. Ian Bell might not be as dazzling as Kevin Petersen but he seems to be in the form of his life.

Originally Posted by Jadukor
England seems to be flying high in confidence. They have a great group of Test quality pace bowlers now to choose from for all formats which makes all the difference. The test bowlers really know how to get people out and that's what the English bowling group have done in this series (all of them sharing wickets amongst themselves)and never allowed Australia to gather any sort of momentum.

The English Batting performance was a surprise for me. Their batting order doesn't look intimidating at all and yet they were able to easily put on good totals and beat the Aussies in two consecutive games. Ian Bell might not be as dazzling as Kevin Petersen but he seems to be in the form of his life.

I always thought the guys who can play Test cricket well will certainly, at least 80% will also play ODI well; as you mentioned some of them might not be dazzling but very very effective. Jonathan Trott, Amla, Rahul Dravid all these guys were under hammer of criticize from all over that they are only suited for Tests before even they started their ODI careers but they proved many wrong. Proven performers in Test arena seems to have the best temperament to play ODIs. They can adjust to match situations very well.
Now that England has started to make effect on ODIs after so many years because their line up is full of proven Test players; won't be surprising if they go on to make no. 1 ODI side as well

The real contest will be when South Africa tour England with their full strength side. It will be a good series because we will get to see two of the world's best bowling units go at each other under helpful conditions for bowlers.

Originally Posted by Jadukor
The real contest will be when South Africa tour England with their full strength side. It will be a good series because we will get to see two of the world's best bowling units go at each other under helpful conditions for bowlers.

Yeah and England will be under pressure against SA to show that they really belong to no 1 in Test; if they lose, everyone outside England will jump all over to say how hyped they are esp when all English ex cricketers are all praising this English side as one of the best. On the other hand, SA will be relatively free of such pressure and they have the attack to rattle England top order with Steyn, Morne Morkel, Philander, Imran Tahir and Kallis to cheap in. I honestly feel England is lacking a genuine all rounder as they had in Freddie Flintoff

Originally Posted by Kohli_Sox
Yeah and England will be under pressure against SA to show that they really belong to no 1 in Test; if they lose, everyone outside England will jump all over to say how hyped they are esp when all English ex cricketers are all praising this English side as one of the best. On the other hand, SA will be relatively free of such pressure and they have the attack to rattle England top order with Steyn, Morne Morkel, Philander, Imran Tahir and Kallis to cheap in.

Yeah... it's a difficult one to choose a winner out of these two sides. England certainly has the edge in spin bowling with Swan and also with their late order batting (Prior, Swann, Broad, Bresnan). I haven't seen much of Imran Tahir and if he is not on the money from the get go then he could very well suffer the fate of Narine against the England top order.

South Africa's pace reserves is also a worry in my opinion. While England could switch any of their pacer attack with a quality pacer... I don't think SA has the same level of quality beyond Steyn, Morkel and Philander. It will be interesting to see how Philander does on this tour because He record in terms of wickets, strike rate and average so far is simply astonishing. He could very well tilt things in SA's favor.

Originally Posted by Jadukor
Yep, the decline is shocking to be honest. They still have the great first class structure that produced the previous legends so I wonder what is going wrong in the manufacturing process

I read an article a month or so back(while sitting at the airport) that Cricket Australia were looking at what the ECB was doing, and copying their model for the 1st class structure.

Oh how the mighty have fallen...Australia looking to emulate the English

Wow too many people are overeacting. Im predicting the Aussies to whitewash the Pommies in this years Ashes. Aussies are not in shambles. They dont suck. It just didnt work for them this series and its understandable. England are a solid team at home and thats the only place where they play their best cricket. Relatively new batting lineup for the Aussies so they are in a stage of experimenting but i question the inclusion of George Bailey when their is Cameron White on the wings and even the talented Callum Ferguson. Or the big one. Ponting!

If Australia cant find a suitable no. 3 batsmen then i would move Watson to no. 3 and put Aaron Finch and Warner to open the batting. Finch is an aggressive batsmen and he is the goods to be a regular international cricketer. I have high hopes for this kid. But i guess the team has to persist with Peter Forrest but he is a slow scorer.

A 'shambles' compared to the standards they've set themselves over the last 15 years. They haven't gone on some huge losing streak(they smashed India at home), but they don't have the same air of invincibility around them, and that batting looks poor.

The spin bowlers are rubbish, pacers on the other hand look promising(if a bit injury prone atm, but they're young so that's to be expected).

you wont find prince harry comparing bd and aus that often....mind that the comment is rather derogatory
Prince Harry ‏@Prince___Harry
The Aussies are the new Bangladesh of cricket. #engvaus
Collapse
Reply Retweet Favorite